Skype Estonia's New Head Laments Workforce Shortage

Skype Technologies OÜ's new site leader, Tiit Paananen, says the main challenge for the company is finding qualified engineers.

From April 1, Tiit Paananen will take over from Sten Tamkivi as head of Skype's Tallinn-based development office, with Tamkivi heading to California to study business administration.

Undoubtedly Estonian IT's best-known original contribution to global communication technologies, the voice-over-internet service Skype was acquired by Microsoft in 2011. According to Paananen, 2012 will see decisive steps towards integrating the Skype platform with Microsoft's products.

"Today, Skype calls account for one-fourth of global call traffic. More than half of these are video calls, and that is the field that will see an expansion of products and services in the future," he told ERR radio.

"On the local level, the challenge will be a familiar one: how to find people who can help us put out more and better-quality products. This has always been a huge problem in Estonia and the whole region," he said.

"We already have an international office. Around 20 percent of our staff is from abroad and we have people of 30 nationalities working in our Tallinn office," he said.

Skype Technologies OÜ, currently employing 400, is one of Estonia's largest software companies and the biggest exporter of IT-related services in the country.